


Great Big World

by kylarileiza



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 1987), DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), Quack Pack
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Drugs, Dysfunctional Family, Family Drama, Family Issues, Hybrid of Characters, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I wrote this eight years ago, Minor Violence, Multi, Out of Character, Slow To Update, Swearing, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 15:21:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 19,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15342708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kylarileiza/pseuds/kylarileiza
Summary: Louie struggles with academia, Huey struggles with everything, and Dewey tries to keep things together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ATTN: This fic was mostly written BEFORE the current DuckTales run. Apparently, Louie can still be considered somewhat in character. Huey is spectacularly out of character and Dewey is, uh..... I don't even know. Most of this fic was written back in 2009/2010 and I just kicked around the idea of posting it. 
> 
> Older Author's Note from FFN: This fic has mature themes for DuckTales. I'm putting it here instead of Quack Pack, because I didn't want to run totally with the QP personalities, wanted Duckburg to be full of anamorphic animals and no humans, and wanted to involve Scrooge and Webby. Dewey and Louie will probably borrow from their QP personalities quite a bit, but Huey will probably not match his QP personality so much. Drugs and other possible...mature situations. Webby is not considered a "real" cousin, but does still reside with Scrooge. Fixed formatting! Bit of a pain, but got it done! Most of this I typed up around four years ago and I forgot what I originally formatted it on, but clearly it wasn't good, lol!

 

**the Fray**

Huey glared menacingly at the female duck behind the counter. She looked to be about in her mid-thirties and returned his stare through narrowed eyes of her own. "I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe this I.D. is authentic," she repeated. "We cannot sell tobacco products to underage minors," she coolly informed him, her eyes alight with challenge, asking him to just  _try_ to do something about it. He crossed his arms and frowned, finally breaking the gaze he had held so firmly. Obviously, she would not budge as he'd tried almost everything in the book by now. Usually, this gas station was employed with a younger man, who was a high school dropout and didn't ask questions. Huey was pretty certain he was doing some hardcore drugs and was probably the reason he'd been replaced with this woman who refused to sell him cigarettes. After a couple more moments of silence, she spoke again. "Shouldn't you be in school? How old are you? Thirteen?"

"Almost eighteen," Huey replied breezily. At her hard look, he reneged and answered, "Fifteen."

"I see. It's not even noon. I'm pretty sure school is in session because last I checked it definitely isn't summer."

Huey snarled at her and turned on his heel, exiting the store without another word. He didn't want any lectures from some stranger who didn't give two rats about him. He pulled out the pocket watch he carried with him and checked it with a resigned sigh. The woman had been right; it was before noon and getting awfully close to the lunch bell at Duckburg High, where he and his brothers attended. He stuffed the watch back in his pocket, vaguely wondering who had thought of pocket watches in the first place. Still, it had been a gift from Uncle Scrooge a few years ago and Huey had been infatuated with it then and now he just couldn't bring himself to chunk it and get a wrist watch; it reminded him of when he and his brothers and his great uncle got along better.

He usually tried to show up on certain days around lunch because every other day, with the way his and Dewey's schedules fell they had lunch together and Huey found his life to be much less difficult in the afternoon if his more gifted brother saw him at school. Otherwise, he'd face an afternoon of questions, demanding to know where he had been and wasn't he worried about failing the grade? What on earth could possibly be more important than school, anyway? Huey shook his head after a couple moments of inner debate. Honestly, he couldn't remember if today he had lunch with Dewey or not. Why did Dewey have to get such a darned confusing academic schedule, anyway? After several more moments of inner conflict, he finally made up his mind and decided to seek out another store he could possibly sucker the cashier into allowing him to buy cigarettes. After carefully wracking his brain and finding a store he thought had potential, he sucked in a frustrated breath before letting it out and hitting the bangs that hung in his eyes. "Damn. I forgot my I.D." He wondered if the woman had confiscated it on purpose.

Stabbing at the mess of food on his cafeteria plate, Dewey silently stewed as he listened to a few friends chatter around him. He had only taken a couple sweeping glances of the cafeteria to determine that his older brother was most definitely absent...again.  _Why can't he just come to school? I know he's not stupid!_  Dewey thought as he brought the fork down hard into the meaty stuff on his plate. The fork flew out of his hand and hit the duck sitting across from him. Four pairs of curious eyes studied him, waiting for an answer. Dewey stared in shock before recomposing himself and standing up quickly. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I, uh, gotta do something," he said hurriedly and rushed out of the cafeteria before any of them could protest. After ungraciously dunking his food into the trash, he sought solace in an empty classroom. It was his biology class and the next one he had. The teacher had left the doors opened, but couldn't be found anywhere.

No one else was there, so he simply sat with his thoughts, trying to clear his mind and determine the best course of action to take. Naturally, he could approach his brother after school and try to get him to talk, but Huey always seemed to find this offensive and usually snapped at him. Uncle Donald was aware of these absences which were becoming more frequent and Dewey would definitely prefer not to have those two argue anymore; it was just downright scary with both tossing things at each other and screaming at the top of their lungs. Uncle Scrooge had been informed of the issue and tried his own approach and Dewey had no idea what had exactly transpired between the two, but ever since there had been a definite rift between the two. Daisy had attempted talking to Huey and it had actually seemed to help for about a week or two.

Dewey propped his elbows on the table and rubbed his palm down across his face, trying not to let the stress get the best of him. He would have to help Louie with his school work later. That was another rift he constantly worried about; the one between his two brothers. Louie had failed a grade; the last grade of middle school despite trying very hard to pass. Both Dewey and Huey had tried to help, but there seemed to be some sort of block that Dewey couldn't quite figure out. His brother had been tested and didn't have any known learning disabilities, but he just couldn't seem to retain information, especially when it related to the core academics, such as mathematics, language arts, science, and history. He had to repeat the grade while Huey and Dewey moved onto high school without him.

Dewey wasn't sure if Huey saw it as them abandoning Louie, or Louie abandoning them, but whichever it was, it had seemed to trigger a lot of angry emotions within Huey and even now, a year and a half later, he still seemed to be struggling with the dark emotions. To top it off, Louie had barely passed the grade the second time around and seemed to be constantly on the verge of failing his freshman year now. Adding more flames to the fire, Louie had decided to join Duckburg's High JROTC with plans to eventually join the Navy like their uncle had. This had also seemed to set Huey off and he had become snappish and rude with their younger triplet. In turn, while Louie sometimes argued, his struggles with academia had seemed to knock some confidence out of him and he generally tried to avoid Huey altogether, not wanting to "argue in circles" as the two usually did.

Dewey himself seemed perpetually stuck in the middle, though he tended to side with Louie, which further aggravated Huey. In all honestly, Dewey really couldn't entirely see where Huey was coming from. His brother just seemed so bitter and angry and hard to talk to. On the other hand, Louie was mellow and much easier to hang around with, so it was only natural that he would understand the person he spent more time with better. Huey was rarely around at home and when he was, if he wasn't razzing Louie over academia, he was snapping at Dewey to mind his own business, or arguing with Uncle Donald. Huey's constant heckling of their brother over his academic struggles irritated Dewey to no end and pushed both him and Louie further away. It was something Dewey had tried to understand, but just couldn't figure it out for the life of him.

"Hey, anybody home?" A familiar female voice and nudge pulled him out of his reverie. Glancing up, he felt a smile on his lips and his heart felt much lighter than it had a few moments ago. Webby returned the smile and took her seat to the right of him. She had proven herself to be rather smart, skipping a grade and then deciding to take biology her freshman year instead of waiting until her sophomore year. Dewey had also had that option, but wanted to take as many classes as he could and had opted for a different science course his freshman year.

"How are you doing, Webby?" he asked conversationally.

"I'm doing pretty good. How are  _you_ doing?" she asked, concerned. "You looked pretty lost in thought just now."

Dewey's expression darkened and he sighed, drumming his fingers lightly on his desk. "Huey's absent again from school and I was trying to figure out what to do with that."

"Not again," Webby said sadly, glancing downward. She was familiar with the situation, still living with the boys' great uncle. Her grandmother now mostly helped Duckworth and that was fine with her. She liked being able to stay in touch and had worried she and her grandmother would have to move far away permanently. It looked as if she might be around for a long time and that made her happy. She liked that feeling of security.

"Yeah, I don't know what he's thinking. Sometimes I wonder if he's a lot smarter than he lets on."

"What do you mean by that?" Webby asked, curiously. "If he were, wouldn't he be here."

"And that's what stumps me. I think maybe he's bored with the classes, but then he gets mediocre grades. And if he was really smart wouldn't he know this would reflect badly on him? Maybe he just doesn't care?"

Webby remained silent, unsure what to say. After a few moments of silence, she sighed lowly. "This probably isn't the best time, but I just got out of English with Louie and he barely passed the test we took last week."

Dewey groaned and rested his head on the table, feeling utterly defeated. "I don't understand. Why doesn't anything sink in with him?"

Webby set her things down at her desk and offered an encouraging smile. "I'm sure it will. It'll just take some more time."

"Right," Dewey muttered unconvinced, running his fingers over his eyes and down his face in a sign of defeat, "I've only been tutoring him for a couple years, two more and he should be a 9th grade expert."

Webby giggled unable to conceal her amusement. "At least he keeps trying?" She offered up, not really able to think of any better encouragement. "And he has you! I think it's pretty great you don't just give up."

"He's my brother, I'd never give up on him."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: I figured why not? I'm updating other random old fics four years later and even though I wrote these words eight years ago, here's something... Don't expect it to make any sense. I've seen some of the new Duck Tales, I gotta say super cute! But, like, don't expect that here because this all written back in like 2010. Thank you, Guest, I read the review and figured why wouldn't I update? I mean I do have the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!)

**Deeper Into the Fray**

A grade barely above failing stared harshly at Louie from the piece of paper he clutched, unable to believe it. He had thought that he would at least make a grade worthy of average on this, but once again, he fell far below the mark.  _Why doesn't anything sink in with me?_  he wondered, before finally stuffing it in his book bag. He had reluctantly shown the test to Webby before she had left to her next class. Sometimes, she joined Dewey in helping to tutor him. It was all very embarrassing and every now and then, in his darkest moments, he would wish for a gaping hole to open up beneath him and swallow him whole. It was annoying to have to explain why he was a year older than all the other freshman and even more embarrassing to explain why his two identical brothers were in a different grade than him. Being the "stupid one" as he had heard whispered behind his back before, could be downright depressing sometimes. Not only that, but one would think being held back a grade would make you the smartest in the class, yet here he was, barely passing as usual.

He knew Dewey invested so much time and effort into helping him understand all the various concepts of every subject and Louie studied as much as he could, yet when it was all said and done he felt like he might as well have been playing video games instead. Still, he refused to give up. He might be barely hanging on by a thread, but he was still hanging on and he was still getting as much help as he could. Not only that, by all counts he was  _still_  passing, even if just barely, which meant he could still stay involved in extracurricular activities. He was on the JROTC rifle team and he also participated in the swim team to a degree. Then he'd usually do track later on. He wasn't really a jock and he wasn't by any means the absolute best at any of them, but he was still good at them and enjoyed it and made friends in those activities.

Slowly, he walked to his next class, trying not to focus too hard on the fact that he had yet again failed to get an average grade or above average grade despite all of Dewey and Webby's help along with a couple other tutors he sometimes saw during his lunch hour and before school. They were schoolmates that volunteered their time, something that never failed to amaze him. They could be out doing their own thing, but instead they chose to deal with slow people like him all through their free time. It was either the epitome of nerdiness or kindness; Louie hadn't figure out which yet. At least, he was still able to participate in his extracurricular activities; it saved him from having to go home until around five versus two, so that was three extra hours he knew for sure he wouldn't have to deal with Huey. He had gone through great pains to make sure that none of his classes overlapped with his brother; he vaguely suspected Huey might have done the same thing. Being a freshman, only a couple classes could overlap with the sophomores, but he hadn't wanted to risk it. When he became a junior and his brothers were seniors, it might be harder to dodge Huey then.

He felt his chest well with emotion and fought hard to make it manageable. Surely, two years from now things would be better. They couldn't keep going on like this, barely exchanging a word with each other, only really bothering to talk when at dinner and one or the other needed something passed to them. The only other time they talked was when they argued and over the past year, it had fatigued and depressed Louie to the point he felt he just didn't have any fire left in him when it came to Huey. It seemed as though no matter what, he and Huey simply couldn't see eye-to-eye.

In all honestly, Louie couldn't figure out what had set his brother off in the first place except that he had failed to enter high school with him and Dewey. Still, there was simply no controlling that. Louie had put every effort forth that he could and it simply hadn't been enough. He hated that he failed; he truly hated it and he certainly didn't need Huey further aggravating that hatred. After trying to talk things and argue things out with Huey and failing, Louie had simply become withdrawn from his eldest brother, no longer wanting to deal with it. He had become prone todepression and he knew he was a constant source of worry for Dewey, who was always trying to keep his spirits high and encourage him when it came to academics.

_Poor Dewey, stuck with one brother who is like a bomb and will explode at almost anything now, and the other who is fighting depression and can't get good grades to save his life,_ he thought grimly. Why Dewey didn't give up on him concerning academia, Louie would never know, but he was eternally grateful for his brother's iron-clad will.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: The old formatting I had is such a pain to redo I'm having to do shorter chapters otherwise nothing would get posted.)

"Where were you today?"

Huey rolled his eyes, not turning to face Dewey as he rummaged around in the chest at the end of his bed. He had failed miserably in his quest to find a place to buy more cigarettes and had been unable to retain his fake ID from the woman at the gas station. Already in a foul mood over the whole ordeal, he certainly didn't feel like being grilled by his brother about his whereabouts.

"Well?" Dewey demanded again, folding his arms in grim determination. He was sure this would end badly, but he kept hoping that one day he would break through his brother's stubbornness. Dewey had an idea that Huey smoked. He had never caught him in the act or found the cigarettes and, somehow, Huey was able to cover up the smell for the most part, but Dewey suspected it. He  _wished_  he could catch him in the act, because until now Huey had simply denied it every time his brother brought it up.

"Shouldn't you be off tutoring the less intelligent?" Huey asked, purposely trying to rile his brother up. Usually after a short fight, which they often had, they wouldn't speak for the rest of the evening, which was just fine with Huey especially considering the day he'd had. It was an odd relationship he and Dewey had developed; they could argue over the most meaningless thing and be fine the next day with each other. On the other hand, when he fought with Louie, he only fought over things that he felt mattered and they rarely spoke anymore, constantly dodging the other. Still, Huey wished his relationship with Dewey was better. In truth, he envied Dewey and Louie's relationship with each other; they hardly ever argued and seemed closer than ever, not at all fazed that Huey wasn't a more constant presence in their life. At least he and Dewey did speak to each other, even if it was basically only through arguments; it was better than rarely speaking, like him and Louie. Still, this is how the drift with Louie had initially started and it scared Huey on a very deep level, but he quashed that fear because he had pride and couldn't see past it at times.

"If you are referring to our  _brother_ , he won't be home for a couple more hours." Dewey emphasized  _'brother'_  because sometimes he feared both Huey and Louie forgot they were brothers despite the identical features they all shared.

"Shouldn't our  _brother_ be using this time to study instead of off doing who knows what?" Huey scoffed, not at all affected by Dewey's demeanor.

Rolling his eyes, Dewey sighed, the sigh of one who was suffering the antics of a child and offered an explanation that he hoped would help Huey understand, "When he gets home he spends almost four straight hours studying. I think these extra activities are helping him keep a passing average."

Huey still didn't turn around and frowned, grunting, "I guess it's too bad they didn't have a rifle team in middle school. Maybe playing with guns then would have helped him get through it with us."

Dewey unfolded his arms and gaped at his brother for a moment before recovering and exclaiming, "Oh  _please!_  Give me a break, Hubert! You know that's not true and since when are you some anti-gun guy? What gives?" he demanded. He knew full well that Huey was never being honest with why he had sudden disdain for their younger brother and it aggravated Dewey that he just didn't come out and say what the problem was. Huey slammed his trunk shut, giving up on the fruitless search for some hidden cigarettes, and barely keeping his temper under control. The urge to throw and break things was becoming overwhelming and little alarm bells were telling him to vacate the premises as soon as possible. He knew what Dewey wanted; he wanted Huey to explain his feelings, but it was an impossible task. They all roiled up within him and threatened to consume him and only the violent ones seemed to break the surface despite his best efforts to control them.

"Forget it!" he snapped, pushing past his brother and quickly vanishing from the house. Dewey fell heavily on the bed and and sighed sadly. He didn't understand why Louie's extracurricular activities bothered Huey so much. Granted, the time  _could_  be spent studying, but Dewey himself encouraged the other activities. They already spent an insane amount of time studying and tutoring. He feared Louie might give up completely if he spent even  _more_ time studying and still making such bad grades. Louie was already depressed and on the brink of deep depression regarding his academics. Dewey figured the extracurricular activities kept him active and distracted and even encouraged him to do better on his studies since he wouldn't be able to participate if he wound up with a failing grade in any of his classes. He also suspected they helped his brother deal with depression. He had tried to explain this all before to Huey but Huey had seem to shut down and completely deny the idea that their brother could have any serious problems with depression. Watching his brother struggle and fail repeatedly was depressing to  _him_ ; Dewey could hardly imagine how Louie must actually feel under his tight smiles.


	4. Chapter 4

Pushing aside thoughts of his brothers, he made his way to the kitchen.  _Might as well eat something,_  he thought, heading to the kitchen, and fixing himself a sandwich as a snack. While there, his uncle bumped into him. "Uncle Donald!" he greeted, glad to see a smiling face in the house.

"Dewey," Donald returned the greeting, relieved it was his nephew in blue downstairs and not one of the other two. It had happened quickly and bizarrely, but Dewey, despite being way ahead of him in the knowledge department, was a relief to deal with when compared to his brothers. Even Scrooge preferred to see Dewey, though he would rather deal with Huey than Louie which Donald could relate to. All of the the Ducks were more familiar with and better equipped to deal with anger than depression. It had been easier to handle Louie when he had become angry, but once it had given way to depression, no one but Daisy seemed to have any clue. Louie also volunteered during the summer and winter break at a soup kitchen and had a very giving attitude towards those less fortunate, something Scrooge simply couldn't relate to.

Actually, Scrooge would swear up and down that being around so many poor souls is what caused the depression in the first place despite both Donald and Dewey's various attempts to explain the situation between Huey and Louie, and Louie's poor school grades. Donald, like Dewey, also felt that Huey had put a lot of the fire out of Louie when it came to anger and contributed to his depression; when the two had argued in the beginning of his downward spiral, Huey had almost always trumped every argument, taunting his brother that he was smarter and knew better. After all, who was the one who couldn't pass a simple middle school grade? Louie would fall silent, unable to say anything because it was true.

Donald had his own ways of dealing with things. When he saw Huey, he usually went off and the two argued endlessly it seemed, as if every little thing the other did aggravated the other. When he saw Louie, he tried to avoid him and never asked about his grades knowing it would probably only make him angry and depress Louie. So, it was always a sense of relief, if not a bit dampened by the sad atmosphere of their house, when he saw Dewey or even Webby. Dewey seemed to have all the same problems as him and didn't have many problems controlling his emotions, rarely lost it, and didn't have any trouble with school. Sometimes Webby or Daisy would be over and they always made the table fill a little fuller in Huey's absence and dinner time was always a little lighter when they were around. When neither one was around, Huey's seat generally sat empty since he rarely decided to show up for dinner and when he did, things were even more tense than when he wasn't there. Louie usually picked at his food and ate in relative silence, having long since grown tired of setting off Donald as much as he was tired of setting off Huey.

It was a relief when both Webby and Daisy stopped in for dinner. For some bizarre reason, Dewey couldn't quite comprehend, the two had this way to make sure no arguments happened at all. Every once in a blue moon, Gosalyn and her father from St. Carnard would visit when he had to do business in Duckburg. It was odd, but the spunky red-head was very adept in keeping Huey's temper under control, much like Daisy was with Donald. If he could just find someone to keep Louie's depression at bay, life might be much better. It pained him that his brother rarely spoke of dating and he wondered if it was because of his grades and depression. It also pained him that Gosalyn couldn't live next door or move in and kick Huey in the tail more often.

Tonight, though, it would just be the guys. No one was planning to eat dinner with them and Dewey could kick himself for not asking Webby to come by. He hated it when none of the girls were around because Dewey seemed to basically awkwardly talk to himself throughout the whole meal especially if both Louie and Huey were around. If Huey weren't there, then Louie might chime in every now and then, but not with much. On the rare occasions that Louie was absent, Huey and Dewey would usually wind up feuding with each other. Donald tried to talk with him, but often he would get distracted by Huey and Louie's silence and become frustrated and aggravated.  _Looks like it'll probably just be me, Uncle Donald, and Lou tonight,_  Dewey thought to himself as he finished fixing himself his sandwich. Glancing at his uncle, he decided to make some small talk. They each talked about their day, purposefully avoiding bringing up Huey or Louie. Finally, on his way out, Donald sighed and asked, "Is Huey going to be here for dinner tonight?"

Dewey looked apologetically at his uncle. "I...don't think so, Uncle D."

His uncle looked away and Dewey could see him trying to control his temper and not throw the pan he was clutching in his hand.

"Sorry," he muttered, hoping to help calm his uncle a little more.

"It's fine. It's not your fault," Donald finally got out, calmly putting the pan on the counter and getting a hold of himself. His face was drawn in and he looked older than his nephew could ever remember him looking. It was hard when the family seemed to be falling apart. Sometimes he wondered if this was because they weren't truly his children. He suspected a lot of Huey's problems stemmed from the fact that their biological parents had never bothered to get back in touch with the family. Donald had no clue what had happened to his sister and her husband. He, along with his uncle Scrooge, had tried several times to locate them over the years, but always failed miserably. It was as if they had quite literally vanished.

Dewey shifted uncomfortably in the kitchen entrance, unsure what to do. He had planned to go work on some of his own projects before Louie arrived home and he put all his focus into helping his brother, but he didn't want to leave his uncle alone and uncharacteristically sad in the kitchen. "Uh, do you want some help?"

Donald considered for a moment before shaking his head. "No, thanks. I'll be fine." After another pause, Donald seemed to consider something before saying, "I'm going to take Daisy out on a date tonight. I'll leave the lasagna for you and Louie."

Dewey nodded. "Sounds good to me, Uncle D." With that, he quickly vanished to his own room, intent to work more on his projects.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (A/N: Ah, I had almost forgotten. I was going through some things with one of my siblings when I wrote this. Funny, none of us even live at home anymore and I live nowhere near them and sometimes, you know, you miss those days. It's like why did any of that even matter back then?)

He had several projects going on the side, mostly of machines that he engineered to do simple tasks. It was his hobby and love; to create something that could move on its own power. He had been steadily studying cars and more efficient ways to take advantage of the transportation without having to rely on oil. He had a couple other classmates who also helped with the research and contributed their own ideas. He felt he was getting pretty close to some kind of discovery. That way there would be cars would run on a renewed energy source versus a finite and damaging resource. He studied his plans for about an hour and did some readjusting before heading out towards the garage where Donald allowed him to work on the used car he had found abandoned in a junk yard.

He ran his fingers gently over the hood of the car. He had grown extremely fond of the project over the past year. This was about the only time he could talk to Huey about without arguing. His older triplet had offered to help several times and even helped him with several areas of it, especially concerning the engine. Huey seemed to have a natural talent for cars. Louie, also seeming to know more of cars than Dewey, had lent his hand several times as well, though all three had yet to work on it at the same time and Dewey desperately wished they would. Still, it was the only thing over the past year that each had contributed something to so he felt very grateful towards it as if it was somehow bonding him and his brothers, trying to keep them from falling further away from each other.

Even when he was working on it alone, peace would fill him. His worries over his brothers slipped away and he was able to simply concentrate on this goal that he had in mind. Nothing but pure solace until he heard heavy, slow steps come up the driveway.  _Louie_ , he placed them automatically. Louie had developed this slow, weary walk over the past year as opposed to Huey who rushed everywhere, always light on his feet. With Louie, it was as if he dragged himself everywhere. Mentally preparing himself as best he could, Dewey walked out of the garage and offered a bright smile to his brother. "Hey, Louster! How'd today go?" He had a pretty good inkling, but wanted to give his brother a chance to tell him.

Louie's smile didn't reach his eyes and was obviously forced, lasted for barely a second, if he had blinked, Dewey wouldn't have seen it at all. "It...could have been better," Louie admitted with a low sigh. "I...did Webby tell you about the English test?"

Dewey pursed his beak and nodded. "Yeah, she did. It's okay, we'll go over it and see what went wrong. This teacher does offer some kind of make-up tests, right?"

Louie nodded. "To bring it up to a 'C," he explained. He swung his backpack around to his front and rummaged through it, retrieving his barely passed English test from the mix of papers, binders, and books.

"Wow. One point above failing." Dewey stared hard at the grade as if he could change it with willpower alone. After a moment, he shrugged a bit and grinned at his brother. "Well, it's still passing, right?"

Louie sighed and shook his head miserably. "I'm sorry, Dew. I know you're helping me and I just don't know why I can't do better," he apologized unable to look his brother in the eyes. Dewey cringed at yet another anguished apology from his brother. It was uncomfortable and didn't feel right yet after every other test, Louie would apologize for not doing better.

Grabbing both of his brother's shoulders, he forced Louie to look at him. "Hey, I know you did your best. Believe me, I know you're studying and trying. We're just gonna have to try a bit harder." He tried to keep a positive attitude up, especially around Louie, because otherwise he feared his brother would give up completely. He didn't want to picture his brother as a high school dropout.

"Do you really think more studying is going to help any?" Louie questioned doubtful of ever getting a better outcome.

"Of course it will. Sometimes you just have to keep repeating things until your brain is able to retain the information."

"Doesn't seem like  _you_  need stuff repeated to you over and over," Louie mumbled, sparing a glance at the car Dewey had been working on. It had been over a month since he had been able to help out any with it. "How's the car coming along?" Even though Louie had never voiced it, he knew that it was the only thing both he and Huey had both worked on in the past year even if they had never done so simultaneously. He was aware how much it meant to Dewey and on some level it meant a lot to him, but he never said anything. He had tried to reconcile things with his other brother several times and each time it had quite literally exploded and ended with him feeling like even more of a failure and it sometimes made him wonder if he truly was stupid on some level to be so unable to understand his brother in such a way.

Dewey glanced over his shoulder at the car and turned back to his brother, beaming. "It is going great! It's finally getting to the point where I think it might actually be able to  _run!_  Rus, one of the guys that's been helping out with the research, is coming over this weekend and we're going to hook up some more wires and see if we can finally take it out of the garage." They had tried several times before and failed each time, so it always surprised Louie that his brother could speak about another attempt with such excitement as though it would be the first time they were trying it out. "I really feel like it's going to get somewhere this time."

Clamping down his beak to avoid the automatic response of  _What if it doesn't?_  Louie simply nodded instead and a tight smile formed on his beak, still not reaching his eyes. Dewey glanced away for a moment, trying to remember the last time his brother's smile had lit up his entire face when he wasn't at a swim meet or a rifle practice. Pushing aside the thought, he turned on his webbed feet and motioned for Louie to follow him. "Come on, let's get to sorting your stuff out. Uncle D fixed dinner earlier."

Louie followed his brother to the living room and halfheartedly placed his books and papers on the coffee table that he and his brother usually worked around. "Where's Uncle Donald tonight?"

"He went on a date with Daisy."

"Oh." Louie said nothing more, suddenly losing any appetite he had. Just the thought of only he, Dewey, and Huey eating together was enough to stress him out even more than he was. Dewey sensed the sudden tension in the room and decided to relieve it immediately.

"Huey's not here, either. So, it'll just be me and you."

"Oh." This time it was spoken with some relief and a bit of unsatisfied curiosity. Dewey waited a few beats to see if Louie would ask about their absentee brother, but when no question came, his heart grew a bit heavier. In the past, Louie had still asked questions about their brother, showing some concern over his absences. It had always given Dewey hope that things would fall into place. Lately, though, Louie just didn't care enough to bother asking anymore. It was as if he knew it was pointless to ask anyway; Dewey never had any clue where their brother was or what he was doing.

"I think Uncle D tried to make lasagna. So, I hope it's edible." Dewey said lightly, chuckling fondly at the memories of Uncle D's various dinners. Usually, he or Louie cooked and when Daisy ate over, she usually came over early enough to cook for them. When Webby ate over, she usually chose to come over earlier and fix dinner as well.

Finally, his brother's beak formed a half smile and his eyes lit up just slightly. "I think you're setting your sights too high. Let's just hope it resembles lasagna, throw it out to the strays, and order pizza."

Dewey laughed, relieved to hear his brother crack something close to a joke. At least, he hoped so. A pizza did sound more appetizing than lasagna despite their similarities. "Actually, that's a pretty good idea and probably a better course of action," he said agreeably. It was for the best because when they found the lasagna, it was hard as a rock and both brothers doubted any stray would appreciate it, much less be able to eat it. It was tossed into the trash and Dewey ordered out. In the meantime, they gathered at the coffee table and Dewey began to meticulously explain the questions Louie had gotten wrong on his English test. They were still working on the test when the pizza delivery guy arrived. Louie had ordered vegetarian, while Dewey had simply ordered a supreme.

The two ate, chatting about the mistakes on the test, Dewey's car, Louie's upcoming swim meet and how he was doing in JROTC, and even speculating on how Daisy and Donald's date was going. They purposefully avoided speaking about Huey.

It was on his third piece that Louie suddenly studied his brother with sharp, considering eyes. Cheese hung out of his beak, and Dewey looked genuinely dumbfounded. "What?" He asked around a mouthful of pizza. It was unusual for Louie to look so focused on anything and being the object of this scrutiny was disconcerting. They had just been speaking about Donald and Daisy's date when something Louie often wondered about popped into his mind.

Carefully choosing his words, each with a bit of teasing infused in them, he explained, "I was just wondering...something."

Dewey looked sideways, at a loss, and then back to his brother with a questioning look. "What? Elaborate, please?"

Louie smiled and this time it did reach his eyes and Dewey felt his heart well with happiness at the sight. "I was just wondering why Webby always seems to be asking about my scores and so... _concerned_  about them. It's like she's...reporting to you or something." The smile remained and Dewey had a vague idea where this was going and he was pretty sure all this was at his own expense, but if it kept his brother smiling for more than a quarter of a second, he could care less.

"Yeah...?"

"You two just seem to be...pretty close. So, what's the deal? Have you two got something going on or what?"

Dewey almost choked on his pizza during his fit of laughter and even Louie laughed a bit, though not nearly as hard as Dewey. Once he finally caught his breath and swallowed his food, Dewey breathlessly admitted, "I have no idea."

This prompted more laughter from Louie, who gave his brother an odd look. "What do you mean? You have no idea?"

Dewey shrugged. "I don't know if she likes me like that or anything if that's what you mean."

"Do you like her?"

"Well, I don't know. I never really thought about it, you know? She's just...always been around."

"You're such a nerd! It never even  _crossed_  your mind? Do you like anything  _besides_  research and experiments?"

"Well," Dewey felt himself coloring as he admitted, "it is kind of all I think about."

Louie snorted and rolled his eyes. "Go figure."

"What about you?"

"What  _about_  me?"

"Well, you were asking if I liked Webby, so I..."

"Wait, you think I like Webby now?"

"No! I mean, I just thought maybe you were leading into telling me you did like someone? I know you don't like Webby like that...do you?" Actually, the thought had never crossed his mind.

Louie wasn't smiling anymore, but amusement twinkled in his eyes and he shook his head. "No, I don't like Webby like that. She's all yours, dude." The twinkle left his eyes and he sighed. "And, no, I don't like anyone. I'm too busy with all this to even think about trying to work out a relationship. Besides," he sighed and shifted uncomfortably, trailing off as if he realized he no longer wanted to voice the thought. "I just...don't."

"Wait, besides... _what?"_  
  
"It's just... all these relationships are falling apart around me. I don't think I'd do any good in a romantic one especially with the amount of my time that school takes up."

Puzzlement flashed in Dewey's eyes and he cocked his head in confusion. "Falling apart...?"

"Yeah," Louie said with a shrug, choosing to let his pizza go cold. "Me and Huey rarely talk, Uncle Donald avoids me, and Uncle Scrooge thinks I'm a sucker because I volunteer at a soup kitchen."

Dewey was silent. His pizza would go cold now, too. It was hard to try to offer comfort or protests when he knew very well that his brother had spoken the truth. He still had to try, though. "What about me and Webby? You still get along fine with us."

"Yeah, because you two are super nerds on an impossible mission to make my brain function properly." Before Dewey could voice a protest, he went on, "I think you're just both too nice or something."

Dewey shook his head slowly. "Your brain is functioning just fine despite what you may think. And, Louie,  _you're_  too nice. That's why Uncle D avoids you. He doesn't know how to deal with someone who's not going to yell and scream at him in return. And Uncle Scrooge is just funny about money. You know he thinks poor people are always plotting to rob him, he's so paranoid."

"Maybe," Louie didn't looked completely convinced, but he seemed willing to consider his brother's explanations. "And Huey just thinks I'm stupid."

"He doesn't think that."

"Yes. He does."

Dewey shook his head insistently. "He doesn't. I know he doesn't."

"He's said it straight to my face!"

"He was angry! You know people say things they don't mean when they're angry."

Louie listened to the plea in Dewey's tone and simply shook his head, sighing inwardly. He wasn't sure who this falling out had affected most: him, Huey, or Dewey. The brother caught in the middle always seemed ready to break at the idea that his two brothers might go on like this for ages. He didn't know if Huey had or hadn't meant it, but he had been told it too many times to believe Huey didn't think it just a little at the very least. "Anyway," he said with a sigh, signaling he was finished with the subject of their brother, "let's finish this test. I still have science homework and some math, too." The last sentence was spoken apologetically. He knew he was keeping his brother away from other activities.

"I love math and science!" Dewey reassured him. It was true; he did. Still, he usually came back with something like this and Louie knew he would rather be off doing other things and who could blame him for it? Louie smiled appreciatively and the two worked on through the rest of the evening until both were exhausted.


	6. Chapter 6

It was around eleven when Dewey declared they were finished for the night. He usually kept an eye on the clock, knowing that it would be healthier if they got several hours of rest instead of going through the day half-asleep. He also hoped the consistent sleep would help Louie's grades improve. Huey had yet to return home, but neither said anything. It was not unusual for their brother to show up after midnight despite Donald's strong warnings and even threatened punishments. Except Huey never listened and it always failed. Donald sure wasn't going to call the police on his nephew for breaking curfew but he was at his wit's end regarding the situation.

"Try and get some sleep, Lou. Don't worry about the test." Dewey bid his brother good night. They had vacated the living room and stood in their shared room. Huey's bed was empty. Except for Dewey, the room was rarely used except to sleep in. Huey and Louie avoided the area like a plague, dreading an encounter with the other. Dewey had his projects littering the floor and neither of his brothers complained about it. Louie wearily climbed into his bed, his brain still trying to understand some of the concepts Dewey had explained earlier. He had to get up early the next morning for swim. He realized that he could be spending the time he spent doing extracurricular activities putting forth even more effort into improving his academics, but he just couldn't bring himself to quit his more athletic activities. He enjoyed them, they distracted him from his problems, kept him away from home for long periods, and were basically what he was living for as it was. His relationship with Huey had been fraying, but not awful until he chose to join JROTC. He wasn't sure why, but this action seemed to aggravate things with Huey and from then on, things had just been awful between the two. Louie didn't stay up long; sleep was a reprieve from life and he treasured it greatly. In his dreams, he and Huey still got along, Donald didn't avoid him, and his grades were consistently good instead of just barely passing.

Dewey listened as his brother's breathing evened out into a rhythmic sound, signaling deep sleep. Dewey himself could rarely get to sleep as quick as Louie and usually just went to bed around the same time for show. He figured Louie knew he got up at some point in the night. Heading down to the kitchen, he grabbed a cold piece of pizza out of the refrigerator and parked himself in front of a computer downstairs. Donald had yet to come home and he figured he'd be out all night with Daisy. He snorted and rolled his eyes,  _Some example,_ he thought but with fondness.

A few mouse clicks and he opened up another project he had been working on. This one he usually did in private and only after his younger brother was sleeping. It puzzled him how Louie had so much trouble retaining information. He and Huey had no trouble with this and Dewey was convinced that if Huey actually applied himself, he would easily make excellent marks and be almost if not on the same level as Dewey. Instead, Huey didn't apply himself and rarely showed up for school, yet he still managed to maintain a fairly decent average, which always surprised his teachers.

Louie, on the other hand, showed up to every class, studied his tail off, and still barely maintained a passing average; another surprise for all teachers involved. Dewey had never voiced this concern to anyone but Webby, but he did wonder if his brother had some sort of learning disability that he didn't know the name of. He wasn't sure if it was an already named disability or if he was just missing the signs. He knew Louie didn't have dyslexia and Donald had already had him tested several times to see if he did have a learning disability. The answer was always negative and left the whole family at a loss, even Louie. Dewey had a feeling that something was wrong; some part of Louie's brain wasn't absorbing information like it should or the methods being used to teach him weren't the ones he needed. Dewey had no idea and spent hours on the internet researching it. He was with Louie enough to know his brother's study problems and patterns and been able to determine the type of information his brother could quickly absorb and the information he couldn't seem to remember.

At around one, someone entered and came up behind the unsuspecting Dewey, who was too absorbed in his research to have noticed. "Hey, whatcha doing?" Dewey yelped and jumped in his chair, heart thumping wildly. Huey stood behind him, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Wow, dude. Gotta calm down a bit."

Dewey glared halfheartedly at his brother. "Don't scare me like that. Are you crazy? What if I hurt you or something?"

Huey snorted and laughed. "Yeah, I'll make sure to dodge your giant brain in case you decide to attack me one night. Where's Uncle D?"

"Out with Daisy."

"It's, like, one in the morning."

"I know. Where have  _you_  been?"

"Why do you  _always_  ask that question when I see you?"

"Because you're my brother and its my brotherly duty to keep track of you."

"More like annoying duty."

"Whatever. Seriously, what do you do until this late? If you get caught, it's not going to be good. You know you are out way past curfew." They both knew he wasn't referring to their uncle catching him.

"Yeah, yeah. So, what are you doing?" Huey asked, peering over his brother's shoulders. He had glimpsed some of it before and wanted to see if he had seen correctly. Dewey stiffened, suddenly uncomfortable with the thought of revealing to Huey what he had been checking into.

"Just some...stuff."

Huey narrowed his eyes, aware his curiosity was trying to be snuffed. "Just...stuff, huh? About what?" For whatever reason Dewey couldn't figure out, Huey was always in a much better mood at one in the morning instead of during the actual day. He scanned some of the articles Dewey still had onscreen, his frown only deepening. "Learning disability?" He looked away. It seemed like he could never get through one conversation with Dewey without their other brother being brought up.

Dewey shifted a bit and nodded his head in confirmation. "Yeah, just...looking into it."

"I see." Huey backed away and dropped onto the couch, flipping on the TV. "Don't you think you should be going to bed soon?"

"Don't you think you should be?" Dewey shot back.

The two fell into relative silence, each caught up in their own activity until after two. Finally, Dewey sighed and shut down the computer. "I don't think Uncle D is coming back here tonight."  _Can't really blame him, either,_ he thought with a quick glance at his still half-awake brother. Huey took the cue and pushed himself off the couch, flipping off the television.

"Guess not." They said no more and Huey was grateful. It was nice to be able to speak with his brother every now and then without it erupting into some kind of argument.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, pairing Dewey and Webby together has been a thing for awhile. Ran into it before 2010 and liked it so ran with it.

The weekend was on them in no time and Dewey found that his car still wouldn't run, much to his and Rus's disappointment. Still, it was expected to run into problems when doing an experiment, so Dewey chose to see it as a learning experience rather than a setback. Later that evening, he gathered his stuff and waited for Webby to show up. The two had agreed to meet up and attend Louie's swim meet. Every now and then Daisy and Donald would join them. Huey never showed up for anything. Sometimes, it would be hard to keep track of Louie's activities between the swim and the rifle team. Thankfully, the coaches had collaborated as quite a few students were on both teams. The swim team met in the morning and the rifle in the evening. Actual competitions for the rifle team wouldn't start for another two months and by then the swim meets would be finished.

Webby padded up the walk and rang the Ducks' doorbell. Her heart always fluttered when she went to meet Dewey. She had no idea if he thought her as anything more than a very smart family friend, but she hoped she could eventually get him to. It was odd; she did consider them family in a way, having grown up with them, but when she was with Dewey it was different than when she was with his two other brothers. It was hard to explain; her heart skipped a few beats and her breath sometimes caught in her throat when he smiled at her. Happiness just welled within her and she wanted him to be filled with the same happiness when he saw her. She couldn't tell if there was any of this going on for him; if there were, he was very adept at concealing it.

Then again, he was so wrapped up in trying to help his brothers, especially Louie, she wondered if he was even clued in to any feelings he might have that didn't relate to his brothers. She wanted Louie to do better with his grades just as much, if not more, than Dewey. She definitely wanted to see Louie happy, but she really wanted Dewey to have more free time and perhaps spend some with her. On the flip side, she was guiltily grateful that Louie had issues because it was a great excuse for her to offer to help tutor him with Dewey. At times, she feared that if weren't for the tutoring, Dewey would simply forget to get in touch with her so maybe that coveted free time would be better to not have.

All the boys were childhood friends of her so she did hope for the best for Louie. She had seen his grades and helped tutor and study with him and, like Dewey, she had serious concerns about a possible learning disability. It made no sense why it was so hard for him to remember anything; he didn't seem to get too nervous when test taking so it couldn't just be chalked up to nervous jitters. Then there was the matter of Huey, who had become this angry, impatient duck within the last couple of years. Webby rarely saw him herself. She was a grade behind and while in school generally saw Louie more than his brothers, the two being in the same grade and having a few classes together. After school, she hung out with the two of them as often as she could convince her grandmother to let her.

Dewey answered the door with a grin and Webby felt her heart skip a couple beats, her own face lighting up with a smile. "Hi!"

"Hey, Webby. You ready to head out or did you want to get a drink or snack before we left?"

"I'm good," she assured him. He nodded and locked the door behind him.

"Looks like it'll just be you and me," he informed her. Webby felt her heart flutter again and she fought down the urge to look  _too_  happy about it all. Despite the frustrations she sometimes experienced when tutoring Louie, she was extremely grateful towards the brother who preferred green. It was because of him that she always had a legitimate excuse to hang around Dewey and it was because of his extracurricular activities that she often got to walk alone with him to their school, usually to watch a swim meet. Webby had never been so fond of swimmers in her life as she was now as the sun shone brightly on both her and Dewey, walking side by side. She knew these memories would last forever.

As always, they found stuff to chat about on their walks. It was easy to find something to talk about so they rarely had awkward silences. They had known each other too long and knew each other too well, so the few times they did lapse into silence it was companionable. With the problems between his brothers, Webby found herself often updated on the situation during these walks and with how well Louie was doing. When she wanted to see Dewey get really excited she'd ask about the car, if she wanted to see him contemplative she'd ask about what he thought about Louie's studies.

It had just been earlier this week Louie had received the poor grade in English and yet another in their history class a couple days later. Due to her own activities she had been unable to get in touch with Dewey over it. She was in the newspaper club at school and often went out to find stories. The club had formed with the help of the an art and English teacher. The two teachers basically supervised the whole project, allowing the students to mimic various city newspapers and even created a website so they could produce it digitally as well. She had been so wrapped up in it all, she hadn't been able to ask about Louie. She wasn't sure why she always did, but she always hoped that something would have broken though; that he would have made a good grade and she just missed it somehow.

"How's Louie doing?" While she had seen Dewey again in their biology class, she had been running late and hadn't really been able to talk to him then.

"All right, he failed his science test and you know about the English test and the history one," Dewey said with a sigh. "He did a make-up on the English test and got the grade raised to a low C. The science teacher isn't going to be as lenient. He's going to have to do a lot of extra credit and he'll be retaking the history test Tuesday." Webby hid a smile; sometimes Dewey sounded like he was talking about his own kid or something. Dewey scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "I talked with Phoebe and Rob, you know the two who sometimes tutor him before school and during lunch?" Webby nodded; she had spoken with them before. "Phoebe's going to go over the science with him and Rob said he's trying to go over the history. I'll probably be going over both in the evenings plus the new homework."

"Are you going to want any help? I can come over one or two days when I don't have newspaper club."

"Well, I don't want you to have to go out of your way or anything, but I  _could_ use some help." It was true; Dewey really did value and appreciate anyone else who put forth the effort to help his brother.

"It's no problem!"

"Thanks, I mean it."

Louie's face lit up when he saw Dewey and Webby. Parting from his teammates, he went over to their area and greeted them. "Hey, guys! Glad you came."

"Of course," Dewey said, happy to see his brother actually happy and not stressed. About the only time he saw him this way was at his swim meets and the rifle meets.

"You better knock those other guys out of the water," Webby encouraged, emphasizing her point with a punch in the air. Both boys laughed good-naturedly at her antics.

"I'll try," Louie assured her before returning to his teammates.

He could feel his heart race a bit when his event was called up finally. There were seven other swimmers competing in this one; ten lengths of the pool. He loved swimming, he really did. He also enjoyed competition, but he was always on edge when it came time for the actual competition. He wasn't good at anything else, so it was his mission to excel in his extracurricular activities. He had never revealed this to any of his family members. After all, until recently he had only been good, but not the best in all the athletic activities he participated in. Lately, at his swim practices, he had been practicing with a new kind of ambition. He attacked the challenges with ferocity and grim determination to be the absolute best.

It was odd. Before middle school, though he had enjoyed sports, he had never truly cared about winning or losing. Failing a grade and his crumbling relationships with his family, especially Huey, had lit this flame in him to want to be the absolute best in these activities. He was good, too. By far, he was one of the better swimmers on his swim team, only the captain being better and not much, at that. Duckburg High's swim team was already one of the best ones in the state of Calisota. He beat most of the other swimmers out easily. The last one, he beat by less than a second.

Dewey and Webby were both floored. Louie had never beaten every other swimmer out before. Usually, he came in second, third or fourth place. Never last, but never first either. They exchanged a stunned glance before Dewey cracked a smile. "I guess he took you pretty seriously."

"Yeah." Webby agreed, her shock giving way to happiness and pride. Something about it was unsettling to her companion, though. Dewey's smile didn't quite reach his eyes and he looked unsure of whether he should be should be cheering or not. There was just something about the look in his brother's eyes that seemed odd and out of place. He couldn't quite place it, though, and finally decided to file it away in the back of his mind for now and live in the moment.


	8. Chapter 8

 Huey could just hear Dewey's voice in his head, tone full of concern mixed with annoyance and strained patience, _Where were you today?_ As if he'd ever tell. He was aware of when things were shameful and not and hanging out in seedy alleyways and shady areas downtown or in the generally crime-infested parts of the city were not exactly something he was going to brag about or tell his brother. The boy worried way too much as it was. He kicked some trash out of his path as he traipsed through a familiar alley.

 An old, homeless duck slept noiselessly while slumped against a dumpster in the alley. Huey could vividly remember the first time he'd met the guy. After Louie had decided to join the rifle team, Huey had been overwhelmed with feelings of anger and had vented to a classmate. The classmate, having similar problems with handling anger, had informed him he knew of a good way to get away from it all and the two had cut class for the day and Huey had been led to this alleyway. The two weren't close friends, but they did cut class together often to find people to buy stuff off of.

 Huey was sure Dewey would simply die if he ever found out. From shame, anger, or horror he wasn't sure, but he knew his relationship would be even more strained than what it was now, if existent at all. He didn't have any idea how Louie would react or if he would even care. Finally reaching where the old duck slept, Huey stopped before him, his mind finally quieting a bit as he had something else to focus on other than his brothers. There was rancid stench and it permeated throughout the whole alley. Huey was sure that if the hobo duck ever left, he carried the smell with him.  Huey himself would use cologne before re-entering his house and usually tried to get a shower before running into any of his family members.

 "Hey, Hobo!" That was the only name he was known by and the only one he answered to. They all knew he'd had another name at some point, but Huey supposed he wouldn’t want the name dirtied that he had led his life with before going this far under. The duck refused to admit to being homeless or a druggie, insisting he was _just_ a hobo. Deep down, Huey had fear of being the next Hobo, getting meager earnings from high school kids that weren't old enough to legally enter some stores, much less buy product. Even when a buddy was caught, they had never ratted out Hobo. It seemed to be an unspoken rule to not snitch out their source of all things illegal.

 Huey felt some shame when he bought the stuff, but as long as he never got caught then things would be fine. At least that's what he kept telling himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was aware that he was probably way past addicted by now. Still, he couldn't stop. The lump by the dumpster lumbered in his general direction, distracting Huey from his thoughts. Huey reached out and caught the confused duck. Hobo blinked drearily a few times, trying to place who was with him.

 "Oh. Ya one o' those kids from tha school," he slurred through a thick voice, eyes still bleary. Huey nodded. "Gots money?" Huey nodded again, pulling out some money, and, as always, felt that twinge of guilt as he handed it over. He couldn't remember if it had been Donald, Daisy, or Uncle Scrooge he'd talked into giving him some money. Heck, it could have been Dewey for all he knew. Huey always came up with a legitimate reason for needing it. He knew any one of the four of them would be horrified to find out where their money was actually going.

 Hobo stuck some stuff in his hand and fell back underneath the torn, ragged shreds of blankets by the dumpster. With Hobo, no one ever quite knew what they were getting. A few bucks could buy you something as simple as a box of cigarettes or some very expensive illegal drugs that usually sold much higher. The duck had no idea what he was doing and none of his customers knew where he bought the stuff from or they'd go straight to the source. As far as they could find, he was the only guy they knew that was even willing to sell to minors and sometimes they would be happy with what they got and sometimes not. Either way, _no refunds or exchanges,_ as Hobo always vehemently spat when the subject was broached.

 Huey glanced down at the small brown bag in his hand, heading towards the alley's exit. He peeked inside to make sure he wasn't about to enter back into sight with any street drugs. There was relief and a bit of happiness when the peek revealed a full box of cigarettes.  After yesterday, he had been really worried, but at least he would be good for another few days or so. Hobo must know his preferences by now; Huey preferred the stores for cigarettes over Hobo simply because it was more expensive this way. However, Hobo didn’t have a problem with him being a minor and it would be a while before he could get another fake ID. He could make the pack last for a week or so until he figured out where else to buy them. He sighed contentedly, sticking the box in his pocket and trashing the bag, ready to search out one of his favorite spots to smoke.

 

 Unlike some of this schoolmates, he preferred to be alone. The less people that knew about it, the less likely Dewey was to find out. He had serious doubts Louie paid any mind to anything said about him. And even if he did, Louie wouldn't approach him about it, he knew that much. Dewey would and Dewey would alert everyone: Donald, Daisy, Scrooge, heck, he'd even tell _Webby_. Then Duckworth and Mrs. Beakley would know and they'd have to have some kind of intervention and who knew? He'd be on some reality TV program about good kids gone bad before he could blink. Not to mention the alternative school near where Hobo hung out. There was a good reason the homeless duck hung out in that particular alley. It was only three blocks from the alternative school that all the "bad" kids got shuttled away to once regular society got tired of dealing with them.  Before he knew it, Huey would be nothing but an example for the next generation. He could already hear parents saying, "Don't be like _him,_ whatever you do."

 

 Only two people at his school knew where he got his stuff from or that he was involved at all. The first was the kid who introduced him to Hobo. Huey knew that guy wouldn't say squat. He was poor as all get out and knew Huey had rich relatives and was under the impression that Huey himself was rolling in the dough. Truth be told, Huey had bought stuff for the guy on several occasions. The second guy had been a fluke, but he wasn't going to say anything, either. Mostly because that kid was in an even worse position than Huey; that kid's parents were politically involved and his father was running for mayor next year. Both hadn't said anything to each other and both pretended to not know each other. Of course, he knew Dewey suspected it, but he denied it every time it was brought up. Gosalyn had visited before with her father and her eyes had narrowed and she had asked, but he had denied it then, too. He was sure they both still suspected it, but in his mind, they couldn't do much without solid evidence.

 

 Huey trekked through Duckburg until he was on the outer city limits. Rolling hills covered in bright green grass and trees greeted him and went on for as long as the eye could see. He walked off the path and began climbing the little trails that led deeper into the hills. He passed a dozen hikers and a couple bikers before finding a vacant bench in the shade of an oak tree.

 Sitting down, he gently packed the cigarettes using the bench. Once he was sure the tobacco had settled towards the top end of the pack, he opened it and pulled a cigarette from it, lighting it up with a lighter he sometimes carried. He tended to hide both the cigarettes and lighter in his locker, only carrying one pack at a time and one lighter, hoping this would decrease the likelihood of Dewey discovering his little bad habit. It's not as if this was even his worst habit. Far from it.

 Wisps of smoke danced before him, tendrils rising up and disappearing into the sky, above the leaves of the tree that shaded him from the sun. It occurred to him how unhealthy this was, while everyone around him was doing something that seemed so good for them like hiking, biking, walking, and even jogging the trails. Instead, he sat here and smoked like some rebel without a cause.

 He knew it helped to alleviate his stress and it helped him reign in his anger, but at the same time, he didn't understand why he kept turning to it because it simply made him think of why he was so angry and why he had started smoking in the first place. Everything had culminated for him when Louie joined the rifle team. Until then, their relationship had been fraying, but it hadn't been finished. Then the rifle team came along and it was seemingly finished. Huey had gone out of his way to make sure he and his youngest brother had no classes together. He wasn't sure how easy that would be in a couple years when they were both upperclassmen. His chest clenched, his heart heavy with emotion. Surely, it wasn't meant to be like this for that long. If they graduated high school and kept going on like this....what if they grew old and died having this horrible of a relationship?

  _More like relationshit_ , he thought with sad amusement, eyes still tracking the trails of smoke he was creating.

 Just two years ago things had been going great. He never would have thought that within less than two years, his relationship with his brothers, especially Louie, would deteriorate so rapidly. It had been eighth grade. Louie had been failing. Dewey had been helping and Huey had just figured that things would pan out for the best. Louie would manage to pull through like he always did. It was always touch and go with him, but he always passed even if just barely because he never wanted to be left behind.

 Then he failed and when offered to make it up that summer, Louie had actually thought it would be in his best interest to repeat the grade. Both Huey and Dewey had been stunned, but Dewey had quickly gotten over his initial shock and even agreed with their younger triplet. Huey had felt totally betrayed. He couldn't believe his brother wasn't going to start high school with them. It felt like some kind of abandonment. He wasn't sure if he was angrier with Louie for not passing or with himself for not failing. Either way, it didn't feel right to leave his brother behind.

 As if to reinforce that point, both Huey and Dewey had been aware of the many whispers during their first year of high school. Louie was missing and the kids who had gone to middle school had explained to the other kids who had filtered in from other middle schools that the identical _twins_ were actually _triplets_ , but the third one was kind of slow, or stupid, and hadn't gotten through middle school. While at first he had seemed angry, Dewey had quickly learned how to deal with this, explaining that his brother wasn't stupid, just had a rough time in the last grade and would be around next year. Huey hadn't been able to adopt this kind of charming patience with his classmates, snapping at them to mind their own business and snarling at the ones that pursued the subject. One would think that would be enough to deal with, but Huey quickly learned that the end of middle school must have been when the bubble protecting you from the world usually burst. In high school, too many people seemed to suddenly know too much about him.

 How did so many of his schoolmates know that their mother had dropped him and his brothers off at their uncle's and never returned for them? Huey had finally overheard someone talking about it and realized that someone must have mentioned that one of the Duck triplets had failed a grade to their parents and been told that that's what happens to kids when their parents abandon them. Then that kid went around and told all their friends and _their_ friends told _their_ friends and in turn it seemed as if _everyone_ knew the whole sordid story. Again, Dewey was totally unfazed by all this, something that Huey couldn't quite comprehend.  Did his immediate younger triplet just not _hear_ what was said about them, did no one ever talk within his earshot, or did he just choose to ignore it?

 Huey could remember being very upset one day; one of the days he had heard someone say how their parents' abandonment had made their youngest brother too stupid to pass a grade with his brothers. He'd been righteously, in his opinion, angry and called the boy out on it. It had quickly devolved into a fistfight and the teachers had to tear them apart. He wasn't sure who had said it, but he had very specifically heard the sentence float around in the air when he was being pulled away from the fight. "Can't blame his mom and dad for wanting to get away from _that._ I probably wouldn't want to deal with it, either."

 Donald had been very unhappy when summoned by the principal to learn about his nephew's suspension. Dewey had been shocked and annoyed. When Louie had asked what had happened, Huey had regrettably lashed out at his brother, "I was defending your stupid ass! Make sure you pass eighth grade _this_ time!" He had marched out of the room and slammed the door. Regret had come later that night, but he couldn't work up the courage to apologize and had left it as is. He could very clearly see that as the moment Louie began to withdraw from him and start asking questions of him less and less. He remembered the hurt and shocked look on his brother's face and would give anything to take back what he had so rashly said, but it was so long ago, he saw no point in bringing it up.

 Huey and Louie were still talking even after his outburst, but it had been strained to say the least. Huey would frequently fight with Louie over his grades and how he wasn't trying hard enough. Honestly, he had just hoped it would light a fire under Louie and make him more determined to prove Huey wrong and receive better grades. It had seemed to have the opposite effect and Louie's confidence plummeted to the point he began to avoid talking to Huey altogether. Dewey helped Louie pass eighth grade the second time around even if it was just an average grade he received. Every now and then Dewey would snap at Huey that if he would just leave their brother alone and stop nagging him about the poor grades, he probably could have done better.

 Huey had been horrified to realize that it was his attempts at helping that had damaged Louie's confidence. Then there was soon talk of depression and Huey simply refused to believe it.  No one in the Duck family had ever dealt with depression. They all got angry and dealt with things that way, even Louie. His anger might be more manageable than his brothers or uncles, but he still got angry.  After awhile, Huey began to realize it was true. Only an idiot couldn't see that his brother was battling depression, but he ignored it because he didn't want to believe he'd had anything to do with it. It was too painful to admit.

 That was bad enough and Huey had been at his wit's end and then all of a sudden everything was shot and his and Louie's relationship simply didn't seem salvageable. Louie decided to join JROTC and the rifle team. Huey didn't hate the military, but he wasn't too fond of it, either. After all, it was why he and his brothers had been shuttled back and forth between Scrooge and Donald in their younger years. They hadn't seen Donald for months at a time. Huey wasn't sure if Dewey was naive or in denial or knew and simply dealt with it like he usually did.  It took about two minutes for Huey to figure out what was going through Louie's mind: he wasn't going to be able to get through college, so he might as well enlist in the military straight out of high school and might as well start getting familiar with it now. Just the thought of his brother being away from the city for months at a time sickened him, but there was more to it than that.

 It still hurt to admit, Louie was not academically smart. If he joined the army as he planned since it was an Army JROTC he was in, he would probably wind up as infantry and Huey felt anxious just thinking of his brother in war, shooting at people or people shooting at him. Instead of talking it out, which he felt was impossible with how frayed their relationship had become, Huey had become extremely angry at Louie for this and took to snapping at him often, further damaging their relationship. He couldn't even explain it all to Dewey because a part of him knew he was being selfish and childish. It was something he couldn't understand himself. It just ate away at him. There had been a glimmer of hope that maybe Louie wouldn't _like_ it, but when his brother went on about how much _fun_ it was, it was more than Huey could take.

 That evening had been the first evening he had ever used any type of street drug; that was the first night he’d met Hobo. He and his classmate went to see Hobo and, after his classmate spoke in another language to Hobo, the duck had offered them something a little "special" for their troubles. Huey wore long sleeves now and doubted he'd ever wear a short sleeve shirt again.

 The smoke rose up in the air and Huey went through four cigarettes before sighing heavily and putting out his last one, flicking the bud to the pristine ground where the first few lay. Sometimes someone would shoot him a dirty look for littering, but Huey would just glare, daring them to approach him about it. He was rebelling against the society that he felt had cornered his brother into only considering one option for the rest of his life. The cigarettes always made him think about his relationship with Louie, but he felt he would be totally lost if he didn't have a few to light up and smoke.  They were safer than his other habit.

 Getting off the bench, he very slowly walked towards home in no hurry to arrive before dinner.  It was much easier to eat in solitude than to suffer through the tense dinners that had become the family norm. Sunlight lit the horizon, giving it the appearance of a warm, bright fire and the sky darkened slowly above him. He took several detours, wandering aimlessly through downtown and other areas before finally arriving at his destination.

 Only a couple lights were on in the house. Donald, if he had come home that day, was asleep. Their uncle tended to disappear often, unable to cope very well with the changes in his nephews. Louie was always asleep when Huey returned. Dewey might be up, researching learning disabilities as he often did.

 That was something else that bothered Huey. If there was something wrong with their brother, why had it taken so long to figure out? Beyond that, what kind of person did that make Huey? Teasing and ragging on their brother about his grades, expecting him to perform at about the same level as himself. He didn't think he was as smart as Dewey, but he was able to get decent grades with little effort.

 The stars twinkled above the house and Huey entered it, ready to prepare for the next day. Everyday seemed like the same old thing and it threatened to overwhelm him. Was this really his life? It was hard to accept at times.


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N: once again, old formatting problems.)**

"I'm kind of worried about Louie," Dewey unexpectedly blurted to Webby one day at lunch, not too long after they'd attended Louie's swim meet. Huey was missing in action even though he shared his lunch period with Dewey today. Webby had been thrilled when Dewey had asked her to eat with him. Sometimes it felt weird that they spent so much time talking about his brothers, especially Louie, but she was happy Dewey thought her to be such a confidant.

"About his grades? He actually did pretty good on his English assignment."

Dewey lazily poked his his food with his fork, propping one elbow on the table and resting his chin in his hand. "No-well, yes. I mean, I'm  _always_  worried about his grades and stuff. But, I mean, l don't know what happened this past week, but he just seems so intent on winning his swim meets and is already talking about how he thinks the drill team can win all their meets."

"Is it a bad thing for him to want to win?"

"Well, no. It's just... _odd_  for him. Usually, he always thinks that if you've done your best then you  _have_  won. I've never heard him so driven to win competitions. I just hope it doesn't affect him in a bad way." Webby nodded her head in understanding. It  _was_  kind of odd for someone with Louie's personality to be so concerned with winning. Dewey sighed. "I just don't know why he's acting like this all of a sudden. But he  _is_  still trying with his school work, so that's good."

Webby didn't speak, thinking about everything that had happened in the classes she had with Louie. Nothing unusual jumped out at her. "I don't know, Dewey. The classes he has with me have been the same as always. And I haven't really noticed anything all that different about him."

"No, it's not too obvious. I'm sure most people wouldn't notice it," he readily agreed. With another poke at his food, he decided to move on to happier subjects. "So, some guy is coming to visit Uncle Scrooge later this week. Do you know what it's about?" Webby still resided in the McDuck mansion and Dewey had heard Donald mention something about a foreigner visiting.

"Oh! Yeah, Uncle Scrooge- er, Mr. McDuck," Webby stuttered feeling flustered. Lately, she wasn't too sure what to call him. Scrooge said "uncle" was okay, though he had no blood relation to her. Yet her grandmother and even Duckworth seemed to think it would be more appropriate for her to call him Mr. McDuck. They had not explained their reasoning for this. Dewey raised an eyebrow, and she hurried on, "He's having a pilot visit!"

"Really? Is it Launchpad?" It would be odd for Dewey not to know if Launchpad was dropping by.

Webby shook her head. "No, it's someone from another area. Uncle Scrooge wants to go visit an area out of the way and this pilot is very familiar with the place, a native. He has asked for funding before from Uncle Scrooge, but they've never met and you know how Scrooge can be with his money. So, both are hoping they can maybe build a business partnership out of this, at least that's what your uncle keeps saying," she finished with a laugh. Everything boiled down to business with Scrooge, after all. "There's supposed to be a kid around our age with him."

"Sweet, do you know what day they're gonna be here?"

"No, but they are going to be here for a few days before taking off, so I'm sure we'll all get to meet them."

"Good, I can't wait!" Dewey was definitely interested in other cultures and hearing tales from other parts of the world and maybe, just  _maybe_  he could convince his uncle to let him go on the trip, too. He had doubts, mostly because of school, but also because of his brothers. Scrooge viewed the triplets as a package deal and if he allowed Dewey to go, he would feel as though he'd have to let Huey and Louie come along and it was no secret that Scrooge currently had a troubled relationship with the other two.

The day came and Dewey found himself trying to convince his younger brother to join him on his visit to their great uncle's mansion. It used to be an easy task to get his brother to accompany him almost anywhere. Now, Louie was a a bit more resistant to leave the house especially if it concerned visiting their great uncle. Originally, Dewey had hoped that he would get to go visit his uncle on his own, but couldn't push away the guilt when he passed by Louie studying in the den. His brother was either always studying or at practice for swim or rifle team. On the off chance that Uncle Scrooge would let him fly in the foreigner's plane, Dewey knew that he wouldn't enjoy it as much knowing his brother was at home struggling through his homework. He had caved in and asked.

Louie wasn't too keen on the idea. He had to study for an upcoming science test and he had a history assignment he still needed to pad through. Not to mention, he'd been given some homework from his JROTC class. He had just finished his math when Dewey had asked him to go along. Louie wasn't surprised that his brother was going to their great uncle's; Dewey had already told him a few days earlier. The visit was the whole reason Louie was diligently doing his work by his lonesome. It was shocking that Dewey would even entertain the notion of tearing Louie away from his school work.

"I don't know, Dew," he admitted slowly, looking pointedly at his backpack.

Dewey followed his gaze and read his brother's mind. "You do need a break and I'll go over everything with you tonight when we get back."

"It's going to be a long night."

"I don't mind, if you don't."

Sighing, Louie leaned back. "You know Uncle Scrooge doesn't really like me all that much."

"Yes, he does. I already told you that he's just paranoid about his money."

"He thinks I'm a sucker for volunteering at the soup kitchen downtown during summer and winter break."

"Yeah, because he says its full of poor people and people down on their luck who'd do anything for a buck."

Louie ran his hand over his face. "I don't know."

While Dewey usually wasn't one to beg and generally would say something along the lines of "suit yourself," he couldn't bring himself to when it came to his younger triplet. A couple years ago, it had been easy to brush Louie off without a second thought, but after seeing his brother work so hard just to get through school work that he would consider simple and knowing how depressed he could get especially when left alone, Dewey didn't have it in his heart to snap or lose his patience with Louie.

He also didn't want Louie to dwell on his problems and he certainly didn't want Huey and Louie to have an encounter with each other when no one else was present in the house. Donald was working late with Daisy and he didn't know when their uncle would be back. Louie could use the break and maybe they would both get to fly around in a cool plane by a pilot that wasn't always crash landing. Not that Dewey didn't like Launchpad. He did and he missed their great uncle's old pilot dearly, but he had nothing against meeting new pilots and preferably ones that wouldn't crash their plane. A small part of him felt bad for not inviting Huey along, but maybe if their older brother was more involved in their lives he would know about it.

"Come on, Lou. I know you won't regret it," Dewey assured him. When Louie still looked uncertain, he added his finishing touch. He knew his brother  
wouldn't say no, when he inflected a tiny bit of desperation into his next question,  _"Please?"_

"Okay, you got me. Let's go see this foreign pilot."

Once at the mansion, Dewey noticed his brother visibly tense as if expecting the worst. It was a bad habit Louie had developed when preparing himself for a possible confrontation; he displayed the same behavior almost every time Huey entered a room he was in. Duckworth assured them that they would be admitted to see their uncle shortly; apparently he was in a meeting with the pilot, but Duckworth purposefully strode off, promising to introduce them to the other visitor who had tagged along with the pilot.

"Where's Webby?" Louie asked after Duckworth vanished.

"She had newspaper club this afternoon, so she's still up at school."

"Is she going to interview the pilot?"

"Oh, yeah, she's really stoked about it, too."

Duckworth reentered the room, with a boy about their age. He was a small brown bear, quite an unusual sight for the sprawling city of Duckburg. His hat rested lopsidedly on his head, and it looked as though he was rapidly outgrowing his sweater. The butler brought him over to the brothers, promptly introducing them. "Dewey and Louie Duck, this is Kit Cloudkicker, the young man traveling with the pilot, Baloo. Kit, this is Dewey and Louie, two of Mr. McDuck's great nephews." The boys all shook hands and Duckworth slipped away when he was certain everyone would get along. Unlike Scrooge, he preferred dealing with Louie over Huey. Explosive tempers were not a joy of his. It was comforting knowing of the three boys in the room, Dewey was the most likely to lose his temper and that didn't happen too often to be cause for any serious concern.

"So, Kit, how long have you been flying with...?" Louie struggled to remember the name of the pilot Duckworth had just mentioned. Dewey glanced furtively at his brother. This was very reminiscent of their study sessions. Louie had trouble remembering things even after having just been told. Kit was not fazed at all.

"Baloo!" he supplied with a grin. "And I've been flying with him for a couple years now. I also like to cloud surf."

"Whoa, how do you do that?" Louie asked, fascinated at the idea.

"With this!" Kit pulled out his silver airfoil and proudly displayed it for the two Duck brothers to gawk at. "My airfoil! It's so awesome! You take this and ride it like a regular surfboard and then you take some cable and hook it to the tail of a plane in flight and just let the plane pull you through the air."

"Kinda like jet skis but in the sky," Dewey commented. "Gives real meaning to the name 'Cloudkicker.'"

"Exactly!" Kit exclaimed, practically glowing while talking about his favorite hobby.

"That is  _so_  cool," Louie gushed. Dewey glanced at his brother before asking Kit if it was okay for him to take a closer look at the airfoil. Kit gladly handed it over, boasting about how it had never failed him and how reliable it was. Louie was absolutely captivated by almost anything Kit said and listened intently as the bear told him a story about air pirates and how he and Baloo had evaded them. Dewey flipped the airfoil over and folded and unfolded it a couple of times. It was incredibly convenient: it could become small enough to carry almost anywhere, it was so light, and the aerodynamics of it were simply ingenuity at its finest. Dewey was drawn from his intense inspection by a statement of his brother's to Kit.

"If you're going to be here for a few days, we can show you around the city."

_When?_  Dewey thought. It had been hard for them to find the time for  _this_  visit. Still, maybe the more they got involved with this Kit, the more likely he would be to teach them how to use this airfoil. Louie seemed to glow at the positive response he received.

"That would be great! I've never been to Duckburg before or even Calisota. I've heard all about it and I would love to see some of the sights."

Kit's happy attitude seemed to be infectious because soon the three were chatting, Dewey and Louie telling him about all the fun places they could show him and Kit regaling them with tales of his and Baloo's air escapades. Duckworth passed by the room a couple times and was happy to hear the boys' laughter and chatter instead of awkward or tense silences.

Scrooge and Baloo finally made an appearance and more introductions were made. Both Dewey and Louie were grateful that everything seemed to go over smoothly. Dewey didn't get the chance to even ask about flying; Baloo offered almost right away much to his delight. Naturally, he and Louie readily agreed and couldn't wait. Scrooge had rolled his eyes and said very pointedly that they wouldn't be going too far away and could only go for a short plane ride, which was fine by them. It was all they had really wanted in the first place. It wouldn't be today, though. The sun started dipping beneath the horizon and there was warm and reluctant good-byes all around. Plans of getting together for some fun in the city were made and Dewey and Louie left the mansion with Scrooge sternly warning them to be careful. Since it wasn't completely dark yet, the two brothers decided to make the walk back to Donald's house. It was a good twenty minutes, even with a shortcut.

"So, aren't you glad you went?" Dewey asked teasingly as they set out.

"Yeah, I am," Louie admitted without a second thought. "It was more fun than I thought and Uncle Scrooge didn't say anything about my grades or volunteering."

"Right. I think it went over pretty well." Dewey knew Scrooge wouldn't make a scene in front of a potential business partner. It had been nice to see Louie light up and act so carefree. He did have friends in school and was well-liked, but Dewey hadn't seen him quite like that since he had been held back a grade. It was something he had wondered about before, but couldn't find a way to approach the subject. "Hey, uh, Lou..." he trailed off hesitantly, doubt poking holes in his resolve to ask the question he sometimes pondered.

Louie turned to his brother expectantly. "Yeah?" He still seemed so happy that Dewey didn't want to ask anything that might potentially bring his brother down.

"Uhm," Dewey frantically searched for something to say to replace the question he had planned to ask. "Just where do you think we should bring Kit tomorrow?" They had told the teen bear they would be by tomorrow to show him the city. Webby would probably join them on the tour.

Louie gave his brother a quick, strange look before his expression settled back into the happy one from before. It was obvious Dewey had intended to ask something different, but Louie had no idea what and didn't want to wrack his brain trying to figure it out. If it had been extremely important to Dewey, he would have asked without hesitation. "I was thinking we could bring him to the Space Center and to that famous restaurant. Hiking would probably be fun, too."

"Sounds like a plan to me. He might be interested in the historical downtown tour. We could see the statue of Corneulius Coot, too."

Louie grinned. Of course his brother would think of more educational things than just the space center. It would probably help Louie out as well. "Good idea," he said with an amused smile. Tomorrow would be a blast and he could hardly wait.


	10. Chapter 10

The next day came and Kit found himself at Donald Duck's house. At first, the brothers had assured him that they could meet him at the mansion, but Kit always looked for any kind of excuse to use his airfoil even if he wasn't technically high up in the air. It worked with buses and cars well, too. It just wasn't as fun and easy as in the sky, but it was still fun and he could see the town and get to know his way around a little. If anything happened at the mansion, it was obvious that Donald and his nephews would be the people to get in touch with and Kit wanted to know more than just the phone number to the house. It was always good to be aware of physical locations so, in the end, he had insisted that he would simply meet them at their uncle's. Of course, he hadn't quite revealed how he would get there; they just assumed Duckworth would drive him.

To say he had gotten some strange stares from unsuspecting drivers when they glimpsed a teenage bear riding an airfoil with a cable hooked to their car's bumper would be the understatement of the year. He nearly caused a couple wrecks and sent one woman straight into a panic attack. The city was very active and bustling, he had caught on to that right away. It probably wasn't a place that got boring too often it you searched out the right hot spots.

It took a little longer than he would have thought since Dewey and Louie had walked the day before; he had to assume they knew a quicker route because it took him nearly forty-five minutes to reach the house and that was with quicker transportation than foot. He was walking towards the house when he glimpsed one of the brothers walking up the driveway. "Dewey!" he called out, thinking it had been the brother he had seen the day before.

Huey slowly turned to the strange newcomer, a snarl already upon his beak. He didn't think his and his brothers' dress code was too difficult to figure out; they certainly weren't going to dumb it down any further for the sake of others. "Who are you?" he asked icily.

Kit sighed inwardly, realizing he had already gotten off to a very bad start with this particular Duck. Neither Dewey or Louie had even mentioned they had a triplet! Now he regretted not asking if they were twins, but he hadn't wanted to come off as stupid by asking the obvious-or what he  _thought_ was obvious. This guy looked intimidating, but Kit had grown up under the care of Air Pirates so it was going to take more than a menacing glare to unnerve him. Pushing aside his surprise at this unexpected turn of events, he put a grin on his face and introduced himself. "I'm Kit. I'm traveling with the pilot that your uncle Scrooge is hiring." He paused before offering an apology as this Duck had clearly been offended at being mixed up with his brothers. "I'm sorry. I thought Dewey and Louie were twins."

Huey's face contorted with incredulity before it disappeared into anger and suspicion, his eyes narrowing.  _"What?_  Did they  _tell_  you  _that?"_  he demanded.

_Oh, crap, I am really screwing up with this guy,_ Kit thought frantically. Dewey and Louie had been so easy to get along with and it was like he was banging his head up against a brick wall with their brother. His attempt at reassurance had failed miserably. "No! No-I-I just  _assumed_  that. You know what they say about assuming." He plastered a grin on his face, hoping that would at least get a chuckle, but Huey was not amused.

"So, they didn't mention me at all?"

"We just- we got so caught up in talking about the city and the plane," Kit rambled on, feeling like he had unwittingly gotten his two new friends into big trouble with their brother. He still had no idea what this guy's name even was!

"So,  _no,_ " Huey summed up dryly. Kit remained silent because he couldn't very well deny it at this point. "You said my Uncle Scrooge was hiring a pilot." Even though it was clear he wanted more information on the matter, Huey made the sentence a statement and not a question.

Kit shifted uncomfortably, unsure why the guy didn't seem to know anything that was going on with his family; was he the black sheep or something? No one told him anything? Or did they tell him and he just didn't care enough to remember? At any rate, Kit saw no reason not to inform him of what was going on. "Yes, Baloo. He and Scrooge are planning out some trips and considering a business partnership so we're in the city for a few days. Your brothers stopped by yesterday and promised to show me around Duckburg. This is my first time here."

For whatever reason, the duck before him seemed to suddenly deflate at something he had said and he no longer looked menacing at all. "Oh. I see." He stuck his hand out. "I'm Huey Duck. Welcome to Duckburg. My brothers should be home soon from school and then they'll bring you around." It was very mechanical, but Kit still shook the offered hand and tried to be as friendly as possible. Huey nodded towards the house. "You can wait inside."

Kit nodded and followed Huey inside. He was sure it wasn't his place, but he asked anyway. "Are you going to come along, too?"

"Apparently not," Huey muttered. It was unfair of him to be rude towards Kit and he wasn't surprised that his brothers had figured he wouldn't come. In all honestly, he probably would have declined anyway. It still hurt that they didn't even bother to ask. That  _Dewey_  hadn't even bothered to ask; he didn't expect it out of Louie. What  _really_  hurt was that he went unmentioned and this Kit person had truly believed his brothers were  _twins._ It hurt feeling like the odd one out. A lot. Huey turned away from Kit and sighed, trying to push down the feelings of rejection when unbidden tears suddenly sprang up in the back of his eyes. He did  _not_  want to have a breakdown in front of  _anyone,_  much less someone he had barely met.

Kit heard the quiet but anguished sigh and felt even more out of place. This was a far cry from the two smiling and laughing boys he had met yesterday, willing to show him the city. He shifted from one foot to the other, uncertain how to respond. Granted, if it had been a good friend, he could have easily offered words of comfort, but upon just meeting someone he was at a total loss. Huey must have been used to rooms coated with tension because he simply fell into the large couch and flipped on the TV without another word. The blank screen flickered to life and pictures were soon actively moving within their designated square. Kit hesitantly sat on the love seat, not quite comfortable with the idea of sitting on the same couch as his new companion. Huey's eyes stayed glued to the TV, but his fingers fiddled restlessly with the ends of his sleeves.

_As if he's trying to make sure they completely cover his arms_ , Kit thought as he observed the third Duck brother from his peripheral. Living with Air Pirates for so long, it was behavior he had observed on more than one occasion. Someone trying to make sure the marks on their arms remained hidden from the outside world. Now, he recalled another glaring difference between the three brothers. Dewey and Louie had both been in short sleeves.

Huey debated bidding the new guy "bye" but in the end decided against it, getting up from the couch and saying he'd be in the restroom. He quietly slipped out the backdoor. Kit didn't seem like the type that would steal anything even if given the chance and his brothers should be back any moment now. He was really not in the mood to deal with either one of them right now, fearful of a complete breakdown.

After about ten minutes of solitude, Kit was able to deduce that he had been left alone. He leaned further into the couch, wishing Huey's disappearance would have dissipated the tension in the room, but it remained almost solid. It didn't vanish until he heard two familiar voices entering the house. Already feeling some relief, he hopped off the couch to greet them. Louie and Dewey headed to the living room, Dewey already asking about homework. Both boys stopped short when they noticed Kit standing in the living room, waiting to greet them.

"Hi!" Louie got over his initial shock quickly and warmly greeted their new friend.

Dewey took a few more seconds to realize that Kit was, indeed, inside their house. "Hey," he said hesitantly, wondering if he had forgotten to lock the door on his way out. Even if he had, was Kit really that comfortable with just walking into people's houses? "Uh, how did you get in?"

"Oh." Kit was visibly uncomfortable. "Your brother let me in."

_"Huey_  let you in?" Louie asked, shocked. It was a straight up wonder that Huey would even be hanging around the house during school hours. He generally avoided it in case Donald or Daisy showed up and demanded to know why he wasn't in class.

"Uh, yeah. I was pretty surprised. I thought you guys were twins."

Dewey blinked in both surprise and horror. "Wait. You didn't  _tell_  him  _that_ , did you?" He was already frantic at the idea.

Kit shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Well, yeah." At Dewey's horrified look, he went on quickly, "I didn't mean anything by it. It's not like I said you said that or anything. I just assumed." There was silence for a few moments and Kit filled it with a sincere apology.

Louie shook his head slightly. "Don't worry about it," he assured the stressed bear.

Dewey nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no worries," he told Kit, but his stomach was burning up with worry and he felt as though he might be sick. Surely, Huey wouldn't have thought they actually  _said_  something like that. There was nothing he could do about it now and hopefully he would see Huey later that night and could talk about it then. This wasn't something he wanted to text about and Huey rarely answered or responded to his phone anyway. Half the time, Huey wasn't allowed to have one on him. Dewey swapped a quick look with Louie and could tell his brother had similar thoughts as well. He would assure him that he would hash it out with their other triplet later.

"First up, we thought we could bring you to the Space Center," Louie excitedly informed Kit. Louie's cheerful attitude must have been contagious because soon all the tension that Huey had left in his wake vanished. After discussing it, the boys decided they would bike. A vehicle would be better, but it was a gorgeous day and Kit insisted on exploring the landscape and getting to know the area better, something one could usually do much better with walking or biking. Kit gripped the handlebars of Huey's bike nervously, vividly conjuring up the awkward encounter he had earlier. Still, it was hard to concentrate on anything negative when Louie was in a bright mood even if a bit oblivious, and Dewey, more clued in, but still striving to have a good time. The wind whipped past his ears, cooling his face in the most amazing way.

Dewey tried to put thoughts of Huey out of his mind, though it was more difficult than he would have liked. He didn't want his relationship with their oldest triplet to wind up like Louie's. Huey was so intent to push them away, he didn't want his brother to think he had good cause to. Glimpsing the blissful smile on his younger brother's beak, he decided to let it go for now and figure things out later. There was no point in drowning in worry about something he couldn't take care of right now.

Unlike Kit and Dewey, Louie was used to not taking anything Huey said or did to heart and was able to push it to the back of his mind the easiest. However, he still had that little nagging voice in his mind saying he should try to apologize or explain things to his estranged brother because, hey, it would hurt his feelings if a new person told him he had talked to Huey and Dewey and thought they were twins. That they hadn't even mentioned they  _had_  a triplet.  _Ouch._  It would just end in an explosive argument with Huey, he was sure. In the end, forgetting about the whole thing seemed like the best option.

They ran into Webby half-way there. She had been staying at a family member's house while Baloo and his crew stayed at the mansion. Her added presence chased Dewey's last remaining doubts about the day away and he was able to completely push aside his worry about Huey for the time being.

The three boys and Webby quickly arrived at the space station and spent over an hour checking out the various space material and scheduled flights. They got to enter a room with no gravity and try out other fun stuff. Kit was thrilled and had a blast. He wasn't sure anything could top that, but the Duck boys insisted on taking him to see the downtown tour which was fun, but not nearly as much as the Space Center. However, he learned a lot of the area and was quickly able to draw up a mental map of most of the city by now. Their next and last stop was the hiking trails at the edge of the city. So much stuff packed into one day, but somehow they managed it. The sun was setting when the four arrived at Donald's house.

Donald had prepared dinner for the teenagers. Huey didn't return for dinner. Donald couldn't help but think it felt nice that a new person was eating with them and there was so much laughter and chatter around the table, much how things had been before his nephews had started high school. He could see that both Dewey and Louie's attitudes were considerably lighter and happier than usual, especially Louie's. Webby's presence was much appreciated especially when she had to step into the kitchen to help with a couple things.

They had Duckworth come pick Kit and Webby up after dinner, despite their protests of being able to make it back to the mansion in the dark. Donald didn't want to take any chances.

Dewey went over what homework they could squeeze in that night and was grateful that Louie didn't have any tests he needed to study for. Dewey himself needed to study for a test and took to the couch later that evening. It was a shame that Baloo and Kit wouldn't be staying through the weekend; it would have made things much easier and less stressful concerning school. He planned to stay up late until Huey returned to attempt to smooth things out with his brother.

It was past two before Huey showed up. Dewey was still diligently studying his worksheets when he heard the door open and softly click shut, followed by the the sliding of the bolt. At least Huey remembered to lock it when he finally returned from his outings.

"Huey," he whispered in greeting. The two were used to these whispered conversations especially late at night, not wanting to wake Louie and definitely not their uncle, who was always harder to deal with when lacking sleep.

"What?" It was a flat, dry, and hard response. Obviously, he had taken the whole twin thing pretty hard.

Dewey shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Huey was still there and hadn't fled or snapped he was going to bed, which is usually what he did when he wanted a conversation to end. Opting to remain positive, Dewey ventured, "Kit told us about running into you."

"Oh? Did  _he?_  Well, that was nice of  _him."_  Huey's tone was turning venomous. "No one told  _me_  about  _Kit_  and apparently no one told Kit about  _me._  To say it was awkward would be an understatement."

Dewey sighed. "It's not like we  _told_  him we were twins. Duckworth introduced us and we just began asking about their flight plans and he began asking about Duckburg."

"Look, if he was coming to  _our_  house, you could have  _mentioned-!"_  Huey cut himself off, knowing full well his anger wasn't very warranted even if he didn't want to admit it. It was a simple mistake and it's not as if it had never happened before; they had had quite a bit of fun with some people regarding this issue in the past. Used to, they would laugh hysterically over an occurrence like this. It hurt now because he wasn't sure if Dewey and Louie didn't sometimes think that they  _would_  be better off without him. Sometimes, he thought they might be.

Oblivious to Huey's inner thoughts, Dewey pressed on, "You're hardly ever home, anyway. How were we supposed to know you'd be around when he came up?"

His brother sighed and shook his head. "Just forget it." With that, he turned to head towards bed.

Dewey watched as his brother retreated to their room for bed. It hadn't gone over as well as he would have liked, but it still went much better than he had been expecting. There was something in his brother's last words that bothered him, though. They hadn't been filled with anger like they usually were, but sadness and resignation. Why did it seem like both of his brothers were so drastically changing while he remained the same?


End file.
